My son is working through invent your own computer games: http://inventwithpython.com/invent4thed/ It's also available as an actual book, if you prefer that.

Thanks. I'm looking for something with slightly more teaching or detail than a handbook. 🙂

Do you know of any sample or online version of Harvey's Revised that I can look over? Do you have Warriner's Composition and Grammar, Grammar and Composition, or Handbook?

I'm looking for a grammar textbook that can be used by my kids as a grammar reference. The actual reference books I've seen are either too simplistic and short in their definitions/descriptions or they are too dense and detailed. I'm hoping for a textbook that a middle schooler with a strong grammar background can understand (so probably not a college textbook). I would like it to have fairly comprehensive coverage (including topics like verb mood/tense/voice, objective complements, types of dependent clauses, verbal phrases, etc) and a few exercises for each topic. I don't plan to go through the textbook page by page, but we'd skip around as needed to read up on topics he's not as strong on.

I'm looking at this Spanish curriculum: https://www.flipflopspanish.com/collections/frontpage/products/see-it-and-say-it-flip-flop-spanish-whole-family-spanish From the looks of it, the student works with visual flash cards to learn vocabulary (rather than learning vocabulary by learning to translate). I'm interested in an approach like that. But I can't seem to find much about this program from people who have used it. Anyone here have insight?

I've not used Essentials in Writing, but I wouldn't think it would be overkill. Mainly because I don't really think MCT is good for writing and I use a separate program for writing assignments.

I'll second Math with Bad Drawings. I got it from the library for myself, but my 6th grader has run off with it before I got a chance to read it.

I used this a little bit with one of my kids: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lookkidsw.KnowAbacus I could see it helping with mental math if you stick with it. The most of what he got out of it was to figure out how to count to 99 on his fingers (the thumbs are the "heaven" beads that represent 5, the fingers on the right hand are ones, the fingers on the left hand are tens).

The Man Who Counted is a fun one. If you're looking for interesting problems, Borac Competitive Mathematics books have some.

I only just noticed this today, but they have Intermediate Algebra available on Alcumus now. Who knows how long it's been there (my son has it set to move on to the next topic after mastery, so we aren't usually looking at the topics/books).

I have a writing phobic son. I don't want to make all history assignments be writing paragraphs or essays because he likes history and I think doing that would make him hate the subject. But I do want him to interact/engage with history beyond listening/reading about it. I know I could do oral discussions, but I'm not much of a history buff, so I don't even know how I would lead that. Any suggestions for resources or assignments for history that aren't writing heavy or just making a craft?

By the same author of the Alanna the Lioness books (takes place in the same world) is this series: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0012DZ324/ I read it aloud to my kids and it held my son's attention well enough.

My 1st grader is reading aloud to me daily and doing WWE. If your daughter will finish LOE D, she's likely able to read beginning readers to you for practice. You don't really need to do spelling or grammar in first grade, that can wait. Do copywork, oral narration, and reading practice for the rest of the year and you should be good.

When I used the NaNoWriMo curriculum with my daughter last year, it said to not do any editing during November writing. The reasoning was that going into editing mode turns on the inner critic that can make you freeze up and not be able to write. They do, however, have lessons to do in December that involve editing the work written in November.

Sequential Spelling gets done and has been the only program that has improved my son's spelling. Another thing that seems to help him is having him type almost everything for school. I turn off auto-correct options, but leave the red squiggly lines on. So he gets immediate feedback on misspelled words.

My son has done AoPS Pre-Algebra and is currently working through the AoPS Intro to Algebra book. He really enjoys math and science, so I want to make sure he gets a strong math background for possibly majoring in something STEM related. He has done well with the AoPS books so far. I'm trying to decide what to do for Geometry. I own Jacob's Geometry already. I thought that I've read that of all the AoPS books, Geometry is the least "useful" to do in the AoPS way? Maybe I'm imagining having read that. Geometry might be the last math course he does at home, as I'm not sure if we're going to homeschool high school, if that makes a difference.

One of my kids is only interested in Scratch and coding if she's using it to create animated stories. I'm okay with that, but Scratch seems a bit clunky for her purposes. Is there another kid friendly coding platform that makes coding animation easy?

I'd say I'm at a mid-level for baking. I'm not afraid to cook from scratch, but I've failed a some more fussy recipes that I've tried.

My home is gluten free, so no worries about cross contamination of gluten, and I have a bunch of weird flours already (my family doesn't do nut flours, so we don't have those). We're not dairy free, though, so I don't have any "go to" recipes that are both gluten free and dairy free. Does anyone have a no-fail, go to GF/DF dessert recipe they are willing to share?

These are some of the things my kids do while I do math with one of their siblings: * handwriting or typing practice * spelling (if they do a workbook) * grammar exercises (I go over the lesson before doing math with anyone) * chores * read the history encyclopedia for that day's lesson * read a fiction book to himself * Math "warm-up" (a rotation of problems to keep skills fresh on things like time, money, etc) * math fact practice * any other workbook/worksheet type work they have * read to a younger sibling

I've enjoyed the grammar and vocabulary instruction of the Island, Town, and Voyage levels of MCT. I don't see as much written about the upper levels, and they seem to be different enough that I have a few questions about them (Magic Lens/Word within the Word levels). Is the grammar instruction as good in Magic Lens as it is in the lower levels in terms of clearly explaining grammar terms and concepts? I've read that Magic Lens gets really in depth about verbs. I'm hoping for good, clear teaching about mood, voice, and tense of verbs; does Magic Lens provide this? With the lower levels, the writing books are a big part of the grammar teaching, where the details are fleshed out and punctuation rules are given. Is AAW the same way, or would we be OK to skip the composition books? I'm not an expert at diagramming, but my kids and I have found that we can use the sentences in Practice Voyage to diagram. Are the sentences in the upper level practice books similar levels of complexity in terms of being able to diagram them? I adore Caesar's English for vocabulary. We don't do any written work for it (not even tests), but my kids retain the vocabulary and apply the roots they learn to words they encounter in their independent reading. Is Word within the Word as good at teaching roots and clearly defining/showing the use of new words?

If the grammar is CW is so much, would I be able to get away with using Fix-It as a grammar program? Or is CW more about applying what a separate grammar program has explicitly taught? My kids are doing level 2 of Fix-It this year, and it doesn't get very in depth about grammar, because it's more concerned with how grammar relates to writing and mechanics.

I've only used ELTL (the first four levels). I really liked the grammar instruction. My kids enjoyed the fables and novels used. I liked the grammar exercises. The writing instruction wasn't enough for my children. There's a demonstration of what they need to do (outline, summarize, etc) and then they'd be told to do it. My kids need more step-by-step on how to do that. When I had looked over samples of Cottage Press for this school year, it seemed like the writing instruction was very similar to ELTL. But, having not actually seen more than the online samples, I could be wrong.

Thanks! That was one I was considering, but I worried it would be too much (compared to Harvey's) timewise. I assume you skipped the writing assignments in R&S?

Classical Writing Homer level says to add grammar, spelling, and handwriting/typing. If I don't want to use Harvey's Grammar, what would be a good substitute? I'd prefer to not use a DVD based program, because my computer does not have a DVD player.